Image forming system, management server, and a non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing a server program

Abstract

An image forming system includes an image forming apparatus and a management server. The management server acquires a job log of the image forming apparatus. Further, the management server determines a high load period of the image forming apparatus on the basis of the job log. In the determined high load period, the image forming apparatus (a) temporarily stops a specific resident process or (b) temporarily prohibits a specific interface call in the specific resident process.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An image forming system, comprising:
 an image forming apparatus; and 
 a management server configured to acquire a job log of the image forming apparatus; 
 wherein the management server determines a high load period of the image forming apparatus on the basis of the job log and determines whether specific resident processes or specific interface calls were required for jobs performed in the high load period on the basis of the job log; 
 in the determined high load period, the image forming apparatus (a) temporarily stops a specific resident process or (b) temporarily prohibits a specific interface call in the specific resident process if the specific resident process or specific interface call to be stopped or prohibited was not determined to be required for jobs performed in the high load period. 
 
     
     
       2. The image forming system according to  claim 1 , wherein the management server notifies the image forming apparatus of the determined high load period; and
 when the high load period comes, the image forming apparatus (a) moves to a limited function mode that temporarily stops a specific resident process or temporarily prohibits a specific interface call in the specific resident process, and (b) notifies a user of a function temporarily disabled in the limited function mode. 
 
     
     
       3. A management server, comprising:
 a communication device capable of communicating with an image forming apparatus; 
 a job log acquiring unit configured to acquire a job log of the image forming apparatus using the communication device; and 
 a high load period determining unit configured to determine a high load period of the image forming apparatus on the basis of the job log; wherein the high load period determining unit notifies the image forming apparatus of the determined high load period, and thereby (a) causes the image forming apparatus to temporarily stop a specific resident process or temporarily prohibit a specific interface call in the specific resident process and (b) specifies the specific resident process or the specific interface call to image forming apparatus; wherein the image forming apparatus will not temporarily stop the specific resident process or temporarily prohibit the specific interface call in the specific resident process that was required for a job performed in the high load period on the basis of the job log. 
 
     
     
       4. The management server according to  claim 3 , wherein the job log includes at least (a) a job type and (b) job performing date and time; and
 on the basis of a CPU usage rate corresponding to the job type indicated by the job log, the high load period determining unit determines as the high load period a period in which regarding a job that caused a CPU usage rate higher than a predetermined threshold value, a job occurrence rate of the job exceeds a predetermined threshold value. 
 
     
     
       5. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing a server program, wherein the server program causes a computer to act as:
 a job log acquiring unit configured to acquire a job log of an image forming apparatus using a communication device; and 
 a high load period determining unit configured to determine a high load period of the image forming apparatus on the basis of the job log; 
 wherein the high load period determining unit notifies the image forming apparatus of the determined high load period, and thereby (a) causes the image forming apparatus to temporarily stop a specific resident process or temporarily prohibit a specific interface call in the specific resident process and (b) specifies the specific resident process or the specific interface call to image forming apparatus; 
 wherein the high load period determining unit will not specify to stop the specific resident process or temporarily prohibit the specific interface call in the specific resident process that was required for a job performed in the high load period on the basis of the job log.